Nets' defense caught napping in loss to Knicks

NEW YORK — The list of what went wrong this time for the Nets was lengthy, but specific.

The answers need to be found soon as the Nets lost to the Knicks, 100-86, Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, their third straight defeat and eighth in their last 10 games.

Defensive breakdowns left Tyson Chandler open for five alley-oop slams off pick-and-rolls. But in unsuccessfully trying to stop them, the Nets left perimeter shooters wide open. Turnovers continue to plague them, and coach Avery Johnson is worried his team is tiring in the second half while being impatient on offense, too often settling for long-range jumpers instead of trying to get near the hoop.

Meanwhile, Deron Williams, the linchpin point guard who needs to be comfortable if the Nets (13-12) are going to be successful, said he’s still not clicking with All-Star guard Joe Johnson.

“We’ve got to change some things,” Williams said after scoring 16 points with 10 assists. “We have to come out with more energy, more focus. It’s like we’ve lost some of our toughness. So we’ve got to get that back.”

“I think we’re a confident group, but it’s very frustrating because it’s like a tale of two halves,” said Joe Johnson, who scored a team-high 17 on 5-of-14 shooting. “In the third and fourth quarters, for whatever reason, we’re just not bringing it.”

A day after blowing a 13-point lead in a 92-90 home loss to the Jazz – they were outscored, 26-17, in the third quarter of that game – the Nets were outscored, 48-38, in the second half.

“Sometimes, we get in the third quarter and the game is getting a little helter-skelter; maybe our guys are getting a little fatigued,” coach Avery Johnson said. “We’ve got to fight through it and we’re not there yet.”

One fourth-quarter play typified the Nets’ defensive struggles.

Chandler returned an inbound pass from J.R. Smith back to Smith at the top of the key and Brook Lopez (16 points, 10 rebounds) left his defensive assignment on Chandler to double-team Smith with Johnson. Chandler, left open, rolled off to take the return pass and emphatically slam the basketball for an 84-71 lead with 7:22 remaining.

“It’s just mental mistakes,” forward Gerald Wallace said. “That was the main part of the game. We have a pick-and-roll coverage, and mentally we weren’t in focus with what we were supposed to do with that pick-and-roll coverage.”

“A lot of times they’re running it with Brook,” Avery Johnson said. “We had some breakdown on some communication.”

Meanwhile, the Nets turned over the ball 12 times, an improvement over their past two games. They had 13 against the Jazz and 18 in Saturday’s 83-82 loss at Chicago.

Mercifully, the schedule affords the Nets a breather as they don’t play again until hosting the Sixers on Sunday. It’s certainly not what the team anticipated when it started the month with an 11-4 mark.

“I know we’re not the team that has lost eight of the last 10,” Joe Johnson said. “The way we started, the way the ball was moving, the way we were playing defensively, you couldn’t tell me at this point we’d be right at about .500.”BRIEFS: Jerry Stackhouse (sore right knee) missed his fifth straight game and Avery Johnson was unsure whether he’d have his veteran swingman available Sunday. “If he gets through practice, specifically on Saturday, he could be a possibility,” Johnson said. … Knicks Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing, who spent the past five seasons as a Magic assistant coach, was in the Nets’ postgame locker room, greeting Johnson with a hug in his tiny office. … Keith Bogans, who entered the game averaging 2.2 points, set a season high with 11.